Summary:

The Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 is one of the most popular weather stations among both amateurs and professionals. It's the most accurate home weather station, has a 1000ft wireless transmission distance, and is expandable with many accessories offered by Davis.

Davis Vantage Pro2 Weather Station Review

Davis Vantage Pro2 Rating

Connectivity

Weather Instruments

Accuracy / Freqeuncy

Affordability

Overall Rating

Quick Review

PROS

The Davis Vantage Pro2 is expandable and extremely accurate. Davis weather stations update quicker and can transmit wirelessly longer (up to 1000ft) than any other home weather station reviewed on this site.

CONS

Unfortunately, if you want to connect this station to the internet, you’ll need to purchase additional items. The display console looks a little dated, but does have great funtionality. It’s just not a color screen.

SUMMARY

The Davis Vantage Pro 2 wireless weather station is the top choice of many farmers, schools, and anyone else serious about weather data.

The Davis Vantage Pro2 wireless weather station is extremely versatile and rugged. It’s perfect for the serious weather watcher. The integrated sensor suite can be customized by adding consoles or special-purpose options. A 40ft anemometer cable allows for it to be mounted separately from the rain collector. Davis Instruments has been manufacturing nad selling high-quality, accurate weather stations for over 50 years. The Vantage Pro2 weather stations are among the most popular with emergency professionals, researchers, and farmers to monitor temperature, wind, and moisture conditions around the world.

Connectivity

The Vantage Pro2 professional weather station comes in both wireless and wired options. Its wireless options seems to be more popular and can transmit data wirelessly for up to 1000ft. Note, in most cases, line of sight actually only allows more like 200-400ft, but this is still much farther than most home weather stations can do reliably. The wired version of the Vantage Pro2 includes a 100ft cable from the weather instruments to the display console.

In order to connect it to the internet, Davis offers the WeatherLinkIP (sold separately) that allows for:

Automatic or manual data download to computer

Ability to use add-on modules for extended capabilities

Expanded reporting: view information not available on the console

Free online personal weather page & data hosting

Uploads to WeatherLink.com automatically

View your data on free Davis apps

Automatically send data to Weather Underground, Glob, and CWOP

Unfortunately, like many other functions on the Pro2, you’ll have to pay extra for the connectivity.

Display Console

It’s not a fancy, vibrant color display, but there are so many features and data points built into this console. The backlit LCD screen makes viewing weather data easy, day or night. It has powerful on-screen graphing, alarms and forecasts. You can see the last 24 days, weeks or years of data graphed on the screen. It also includes alarms for when weather conditions change. Additionally, you can see hourly forecasts and more information in the ticker tape.

This display console includes everything you need like hardware for wall mounting or a kickstand for tabletop use. It uses an AC adapter, but can also be operated on batteries alone. When a storm knocks out your power, the console will keep running for up to 9 months on three C-batteries. Operating temperature ranges from 32-140° F. Finally, the console can be set up to retransmit the data it receives to other wireless Vantage Pro2 or Vantage Vue consoles or Weather Envoy.

Davis Weather Instruments

Like most categories in this Davis weather station review, the Pro2 includes the basics, but additional sensors will cost extra. First, here are the standard Davis weather instruments on the Vantage Pro2’s rugged integrated sensor suite:

The integrated sensor suite allows for some of the weather sensors to be separated in order to gain the utmost accuracy in readings. For instance, the anemometer can be mounted up to 40ft way from the rain collector. This can be handy if different locations will provide the best readings. This feature is not common amongst most household weather stations.

Power Source for Weather Instruments

The Vantage Pro2 weather station is solar powered and also has a battery backup.

Accuracy

The Davis Instruments Pro2 weather station is extremely accurate when compared to most of the competition. In fact, it’s the most accurate home weather station we’ve reviewed! This is yet another reason why many consider it the best weather station available. Here are the amazing accuracy stats:

Temperature: ± 1° F

Humidity: ± 3% (inside) and ± 2% (outside)

Barometric Pressure: ±0.03 inHG

Rain: ± 4%

Wind Direction: ± 3°

Wind Speed: ± 1 mph

Optional UV ± 5% of full scale

Optional solar Radiation: ± 5%

The standard radiation shield ensures that accurate temperature samples are taken even if the sun is beating down on the integrated sensor suite. The optional 24-hour fan-aspirated radiation shield makes the temperature reading extremely accurate. In addition, the ability to separate the sensors on the Vantage Pro weather station allow for mounting that will also assist in accuracy of data.

Update Frequency

Together with accuracy, the update frequency of this Davis weather station lead the pack. Faster than any other unit in our weather station reviews, the Vantage Pro 2 updates weather data every 2.5 seconds!

Affordability

The price tag on the Davis Vantage Pro 2 is relatively high in comparison to others we’ve reviewed However, it’s the quality, accuracy, and ruggedness that you’re paying for. This weather station model is really in a class of its own. It’s hard to compare it with the others since it’s so different. In this case, different is good!

As the old saying goes, “you get what you pay for.” In this case, it’s true and you’re getting the best weather station at this price point. As we’ve discussed above, there are many add-ons available for the Pro2, but you will have to pay for many of them separately.

What Are Actual Customers Saying?

Existing customers of the Vantage Pro2 give it high marks and praise. Much of the feedback we saw during our research include comments about how this is the best weather station for professionals or home use. The only negative comments we’ve seen on the Pro2 were about its higher price, relatvie to other home weather stations.

If these positive reviews didn’t rev you up, here’s a cool video testimonial on this professional weather station. It shows stuntman Nik Wallenda recommending the Davis Vantage Pro 2.

Davis Vantage Pro2 Weather Station: Pros & Cons

PROS

CONS

High price point

Internet connection not included – WeatherLinkIP sold separate

Display console looks outdated

Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2: Summary

Davis Instruments has been a leader in instrumentation for over 50 years. Hobbyists, emergency responders, sports stadiums, and others have relied on Davis for critical decision making based on weather. They make some rugged weather station equipment. There is little doubt with its accuracy, update frequency, and solid design that this is the best weather station on the market. As with most things, the best isn’t cheap.

Most professionals and enthusiasts using the Pro2 don’t regret their purchase and continually tout its value. If you’re just looking for a home weather station and this model is out of your price range, there are other models for your needs. Perhaps you should take a look at the less expensive Davis Vantage Vue 6250. On the other hand, if you’re someone who requires accurate weather for critical decision making, I strongly recommend this as the all-around best weather station.

Specialty Davis Vantage Pro2 Models

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the pre-built options for the Pro2 that include some of the additional equipment available for this weather station. If you want these options, you’ll find that it’s more economical to buy the kit upfront vs adding to the base model later. Here are links to some of the options available (note, I included the standard cable version of the Pro2 at the end of the list):

Check out our other Davis Weather Station Reviews…

Davis Vantage Pro2 Rating

Connectivity

Weather Instruments

Accuracy / Freqeuncy

Affordability

Overall Rating

Quick Review

PROS

The Davis Vantage Pro2 is expandable and extremely accurate. Davis weather stations update quicker and can transmit wirelessly longer (up to 1000ft) than any other home weather station reviewed on this site.

CONS

Unfortunately, if you want to connect this station to the internet, you’ll need to purchase additional items. The display console looks a little dated, but does have great funtionality. It’s just not a color screen.

SUMMARY

The Davis Vantage Pro 2 wireless weather station is the top choice of many farmers, schools, and anyone else serious about weather data.